Staying connected to your world…
Edgar Allen Beem has been writing about the arts for decades. In fact, when my husband, painter Linden Frederick (www.lindenfrederick.com) and I moved to Maine in 1989, we discovered Beem’s book Maine Art Now and fought over who got to read it in the evenings. We had no idea Maine was so arts centered and supportive when we moved here. It was the lifestyle, the ocean, etc. that drew us. Well, Maine Art Now completely changed the way we looked at our adopted state.
Ed Beem now writes for the Photo District News among other publications and most recently started a photoblog for Yankee Magazine. www.yankeemagazine.com/blogs/art/artblogs . I just learned that The Americans has just been reissued. I didn’t know. And another tidbit – Robert Frank has lived in near seclusion in Mabou, Nova Scotia for ages. Linden and I were there a few years ago and didn’t even know we were walking in the shadow of a great artist and one who turned the entire photography world on its head in the 50′s.
Ed also writes about the recent salon at VoxPhotographs. It’s by invitation only and allows seasoned professionals in the arts, with a big interest/focus on photography to come together, relax and share their expertise. Remember the old-style salons where people would get together and actually talk about intellectual things – literature, art, music? Too much tv, too little talk about ideas. We need more salons.
If you aren’t connecting to these resources constantly and you are a fine art photographer, move on over and give up your space to someone else who is more interested. Maine tends to make for a good excuse for staying isolated. Not any more. Some of us are changing that, one posting at a time.
